The Melbourne Cricket Club had already had stints at William Street, the present Southern Cross Station and the banks of the Yarra River near where Crown Casino sits today before moving to their current location. The club were thrown out of their Spencer Street home in 1853 when a train line to Port Melbourne was planned to be run straight through the ground.

On September 23, 1853 Victoria's first governor Charles La Trobe donated part of the Richmond police paddock to the club and the "Hallowed Turf" was born.

At first the Melbourne Football Club were denied access to the ground itself, forced to play on land in the park outside. With the ground unfenced it proved a highly unsuitable set-up. Spectators would wander onto the field at will, and on occasions where enormous crowds turned up the game could be confined to a narrow corridor on the field. It is said that once when confidence tricksters and merchants refused to move off the field, Henry Harrison and his men were forced to chase them off.

The club made an application to the city in 1867 to fence the ground off, and even offered to put 600p towards laying down turf. The city, however, rejected the plan and planted trees instead. Early after the start of the next season some of the trees needed to be removed as they had become dangerous for the players. The ball would often land in the tree branches, leaving players forced to wait for it to fall out and into their hands.

1869 saw the return of matches to the cricket ground. A formal request of the trustees of the ground was accepted by the Board of Land and Works, and the cricket ground was thrown open to other sports briefly but the MCC itself treated the idea with suspicion and barred football from their ground for many years. One of the few concession to football was the construction of a grandstand which could hold 2000 fans and be reversed to face either the cricket or football ground.

It took until 1877 for another match to be played on the main arena, and after a match against Carlton grossed 500p the club decided to allow six months each for cricket and football to use the ground. Sensing the opportunity to make more money the MCC invited Hotham, Carlton and Geelong to use the ground as well in 1879.

With the Reds slumping in the 1880's and gate receipts proving disappointing the MCC resolved to move Melbourne off the ground for the 1885 season in favour of the more popular Carlton but the original tenants were soon back at the ground when their new arena proved unsuitable.

During the latter stages of World War II the ground was occupied by the US Army and renamed "Camp Murphy". The Demons were forced to move to Punt Road until late in the 1946 season.

The Demons lost their exclusive hold on the ground when Richmond moved in for the start of 1965. In 1984 North Melbourne started to move in, and by the end of the next year they had abandoned Arden Street for a full time home at the 'G.

The famous "Smokers' Stand" was demolished at the end of the 2003 season to make way for a new members stand.